


Bliss

by CynicalMistrust



Series: The Pattern of Feathers [12]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Castiel in the Bunker, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-20
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-27 08:33:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5041363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CynicalMistrust/pseuds/CynicalMistrust
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>~Part 12 of Pattern of Feathers~</p><p>Sam, Dean, and Cas have been through a lot together. Now that things have settled down and they are no longer faced with a choice between their lives or the world, maybe they can start to put their lives back together again.</p><p>~Dean starts to realize just how good he has it.~</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bliss

Dean lay passed out face-down on the couch, too exhausted to make it to the bedroom after ten hours of research. Sea witches and boggarts. He hated fairy-type creatures. He hated more when there were too many calls from the newer hunters for Sam to handle the research, but at least no one had died. That was always a plus.

He slept without dreams, at least not the kind that turned to nightmares and shoved him from sleep in a cold sweat. He drifted in a landscape of deep blue, at peace, at least until the low murmur of voices slipped through his mind and nudged him toward waking. With a deep sigh he stretched on the couch, grunting at the protest in his lower back and shifting to his side as he heard Alex speaking.

“Amazing isn’t exactly the word I would have chosen.”

“No, it is,” Cas said. “I’m still amazed by humans who are able to follow their dreams and do good in the face of adversity.”

Dean stood and stretched out the kinks in his back, glancing to the library table to see Cas and Alex sitting across from each other.

Alex leaned forward, propping her chin on her fist. “Do you still think of yourself as an angel?”

Dean paused and stayed by the sofa rather than join them, interested in the answer despite being annoyed at hearing someone pry into Cas’ personal life in such a way.

Cas didn’t answer immediately and his voice was softer than usual when he did. “Sometimes, I recall with clarity what it was like to fly, to be able to see every atom of an entire city in a fraction of a moment. Other times it’s difficult to remember how things looked as an angel. The colors I see now are subdued.” He smiled at the table and shrugged. “But what I’ve gained in return is complex emotions. A soul.” He glanced up and towards Dean, smile widening as their eyes met before he looked back to Alex. “I think of myself as what I am. Like you do.”

Dean felt a smile tugging at his own lips as he headed to the table to join them, yawning and patting Cas’ shoulder. He dropped down to sit next to him. “Morning.”

Alex raised an eyebrow, sitting back in her seat. “Morning? You slept all day; it’s almost six.”

Dean cursed under his breath, rubbing at his eyes. “Where’s Sam?”

“Getting food. He couldn’t wake you to make dinner.”

“Why am I the only one who cooks around here?” Dean yawned again, slumping lower in his seat before spotting Cas’ water. He reached for it, taking a drink before spitting it back into the glass. “Fuck, what is this?”

Cas grimaced and pushed the glass away when Dean set it back in front of him. “Water.” He paused when Dean gave him a ‘That was _not_ just water’ look. “With lime.”

“Ugh. You and Sam, I swear.”

Cas sighed in exasperation, something he’d taken a liking to lately. It was a very human response and something about it set Dean at ease. “Dean.”

“What?” Dean wiped at his mouth for the third time, glancing up to find Cas staring at him, and not in the usual manner. “Fine.” He grabbed the glass and stood, heading to the kitchen to get a fresh glass. He found a lime in the fridge and a knife, grabbing a beer for himself and taking it all back to the table. He caught Alex watching him with a smirk and made a face as he sat. “Shut up.”

Alex laughed. “I didn’t say anything.”

“Yeah well, you were thinkin’ it.”

Cas raised an eyebrow at them, squeezing half a lime into his water. “Thinking what?”

Dean rolled his eyes as Alex ignored his glare and answered. “How cute you two are.”

Cas glanced between them with a curious expression, but whatever he was going to say was cut off as Alex’s phone rang.

“Hey Sam… No, he’s awake… Okay.” She hung up and stood. “Guess he got groceries, too.”

“Need help?” Cas asked, starting to get up.

“I got it.” Alex winked at them and headed for the stairs.

Once the door closed Cas shifted to look at Dean, and Dean pretended not to notice by taking a long drink of his beer. “I could cook.”

Well that certainly wasn’t the conversation he’d been expecting. He eyed Cas with a faint smirk. “Last time we left you unsupervised in the kitchen, you blew up the microwave.” The entire bunker had smelled like smoked, blackened hot-pockets for three days, too.

Cas narrowed his eyes. “I asked several times for assistan-”

“Whoa, easy tiger.” Dean held up a hand before Cas could start on a rant. “You really want to learn to cook?”

“If it will mean I’m useful.”

Dean started to say Cas didn’t need to do things like that just to be useful, but he closed his mouth when he noticed the beginnings of a glare. That incident had taken place nearly a month ago, and Cas seemed to pick up on most things when he was given proper instructions. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to make sure Cas could at least take care of himself without resorting to living on the streets like before. A familiar pang of guilt stabbed through him and he looked away, taking another drink of beer, glad when Cas didn’t comment. “What else you want to learn to do?”

Cas shrugged and hesitated before answering. “Ride a bike.”

Dean grinned. “Cooking and learning to ride a bike. We can do that. Maybe skating, too. There’s an ice-skating rink not too far from here.” He wasn’t about to admit to looking for things to do since they’d taken a step back from hunting. They still took care of some jobs themselves, usually local salt and burns, but for the most part, the network seemed to be doing well. They were talking about having a few of the new hunters that passed some tests cycle through for training - make sure they knew how to care for their guns and other weapons, what supplies they always needed to have on hand.

Despite that, he found himself with far more free time on his hands than he was used to, and he could only have so much sex and spend so much time waxing and tweaking Baby before he needed something new in his routine.

“Make a list of things you’re interested in. We’ll see what we can do.”

Cas tilted his head with a faint smile forming on his lips. “Thank you, Dean.”

Dean shrugged, tipping his beer back again as Sam and Alex came down with several bags on each arm. Dinner consisted of pizza, followed by Sam and Dean firing up the latest season of Game of Thrones while Alex taught Cas to properly play poker. By the sound of it, Cas was having a hard time understanding the concept of bluffing.

Sam glanced back at the table, watching them with a smile before eyeing Dean. “You ever think we’d end up here?”

“What, sane and whole and doing something other than hunting?”

“Making a life for ourselves outside of hunting, yeah.”

“Not in a million years.” Dean glanced toward the table, part of him still relishing the fact Cas was here with them. Human. Not causing chaos in Heaven or Hell, just… here. Existing, with them. And Cas wanted to learn how to do things. He had a feeling the list he’d make would be things Dean and Sam hadn’t really been able to enjoy either, and he was more than looking forward to being able to experience them.

It was almost too good to be true; surely the other shoe would drop eventually, but he was learning to enjoy life. He’d had it ripped away from him too many times not to take it for granted when things were finally balanced.

“It’s good, right?” Sam asked, as if sensing his thoughts.

“Yeah, Sammy. It’s good.”


End file.
